


Damaged Dreamies

by KakeWarlock



Series: A-Z Kpop Oneshots [4]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Abuse, Additional Warnings Apply, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Guilt, Nct dream is sad too, Other, Taeyong is sad, Triggers, but happy ending, everyone is sad, lots of thoughts, smh, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 02:08:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13471437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KakeWarlock/pseuds/KakeWarlock
Summary: Taeyong saw things he shouldn't have seen and is conflicted.Because it wasn't the first time.OrThe manager of NCT DREAM is a piece of shit, and without knowing it, Taeyong knows.





	Damaged Dreamies

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to D in my A-Z oneshot. I literally had to become a fan of NCT to make this.
> 
> Umm if you triggered easily, don't read this??? But it's not that bad.
> 
> And totally check out my other stories (my 97Line one has NCT in it too!)
> 
> THIS IS NOT EDITED AS OF RIGHT NOW AND I MADE THIS AT LIKE 2 IN THE MORNING.

When Taeyong was assigned as leader, he would have never thought that he had to consult something this big. He was only twenty-two years old, what did he know about the world? He wasn’t cruel enough to let something like this go and pretend he hadn’t seen anything, but on another hand, he selfishly wished he hadn’t witnessed anything that happened in the last few minutes.

 

He could, he thought to himself, forget everything that went on. It wasn’t like anybody saw him anyways. But the thought was gone as soon as it came, the burning hot anger finally settling in his veins after the initial shock parted from his system. Anger manifesting at himself, anger at SM Entertainment, but mostly anger at their manager.

 

The first time Taeyong met the NCT DREAM manager, the older male introduced himself with a warm grin and Taeyong greeted him back respectfully, unaware of the venomous evil seeping through the man’s bloodstream. If he had taken the time to think about it back then as he did now, he would conclude that he was unaware of a lot of things. 

 

After the Dreamies were situated into their places and jobs, Taeyong saw that many, if not all, of the 127 members that were in both of the groups seemed to deviate towards the youngers dorm. In the beginning, he merely dismissed it as them feeling obligated to take care of the youngers, since the 127 members were mostly older than the Dreamies, but after a while, it became more and more suspicious. 

 

None of the remaining 127 members thought anything of it or noticed much of a difference but Taeyong was observant (most likely the reason he was appointed leader). He noticed that the Dreamies were considerably more quiet and didn’t joke around as much as they used to.

 

Of course there was a certain amount of stress on them being young idols that are newly debuted in the industry but Taeyong had never seen anybody’s eyes just look as…  _ tired _ as theirs had. He wanted to consult him but he wasn’t their leader, Mark was. That shouldn’t be validation not to help since Mark looked the most stressed, having to be in all of the NCT units and barely getting his well deserved break at all but Taeyong had his own problems so he ignored these.

 

How he wished he didn’t. He wished he had asked them what was wrong every time he caught one of them staring off into space with a glazed over look, dissociating from reality. How he should have told them they were lying when they flashed fake smiles at him, ensuring they were fine instead of brushing then off.

 

His problems and stress of comebacks seemed mediacore now that he found out about what was going on with them. The reality of the situation seemed to open his eyes to how messed the world really was. How horrible people were and what they would do in order to get what they wanted in life. It was disgusting. But now that he thought about it, maybe he was disgusting for wanting to ignore it.

 

Maybe that’s why Taeyong made no move to tell the CEO of SM, instead walking from the training room where the incident had taken place. He didn’t heroically swing open the door and save the other members as he heard their pleas and cries to stop. He continued walking down the hall, determined on ignoring the abuse that was currently inflicted on them. Because deep down inside, he knew he was too weak to stop anything.

 

And it wouldn’t have been the first time.

Taeyong hadn’t been an easy child growing up. He had been very shy, a fact his sister was determined to change about him, and he was your average otaku. He’d rather stay at home than go outside and actually socialize. His parents were exasperated, forcing him outside the house to make friends. 

 

On one occasion, he had actually agreed to leave, he had run out of his favorite snack and needed to get more from the convenience store not too far from his house, and his parents were excited, thinking he was out to meet a friend. He didn’t bother correcting them and left, in a hurry to get to his snack.

 

The way to the store was fine, despite the paranoia eating him alive at the fact that it was late at night. He entered the quiet store quickly and surveyed his surroundings carefully, a small habit he obtained after making many theories for Harry Potter in his free time.

 

There was an old lady managing the register, who seemed unfamiliar to Taeyong. It was probably due to the fact that Taeyong never came this late at night so the kind man who was always the cashier might have already finished his shift.

 

Other than her, there was a high school girl looking through the chips section of the store. Her hands trembled as they grazed all of the snacks. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt and a relatively short skirt but the store was hot so there was no reason for her to be cold.

 

Her eyes fluttered up, staring through the window for a moment, he would have missed it if he wasn’t looking, and clenched her fist. He kept his eyes subtly on her in interest, walking into the chips aisle too. He pretended to not know what he wanted and followed her gaze outside of the window.

 

The dark made it hard to see but he could almost make out the silhouette of a person, the whites of his eyes staring directly at him. He looked back to his chips, trying to make it seem like he didn’t know anybody was there.

 

Shaking his head, he grabbed two bags of his chips. He initially wanted to stay in the store for thirty minutes but it’s only been ten and Taeyong was ready to leave. The girl and the stranger seemed like something he did not want to get into. But as he thought about it more, it didn’t make much sense to him. He knew he was missing something, but it wasn’t his life so he didn’t dwell on it for long, reaching the cash register.

 

The old lady scanned the two bags slowly and he patiently waited for her to finish. In that time, the young girl situated herself behind him, holding the same bag of chips in her hand. He inwardly smiled at her choice, and generously grabbed the bags of chips after paying. 

 

Before exiting, he stared at the window and there was no one there. Shrugging to himself he waited by the door for the girl to finish. As much as he wanted to leave, he thought he should at least socialize with somebody so he didn’t have to make anything up when he came home.

 

The girl gave a confused look at him and he blushed slightly. Without a word, he opened the door for her and her mouth made a slight o shape and she silently thanked him, walking out of the store. He followed her slowly, as his house was in the same area.

 

Strangely, she didn’t seem scared by his company but instead relieved to a certain degree. There was a comfortable silence between them and even though he wanted to make conversation with her, he felt that she would be frightened. There was no need to think further though, because another male popped seemingly out of nowhere. The girl stiffened and took a step back. 

 

The man look no younger than 20 and he flashed a smile at Taeyong, locking arms with the girl, She didn’t resist him, she instead looked defeated. Taeyong’s brain was moving faster than ever, trying to find out what was going on.

 

“Thank you for staying with her,” the man spoke up, after an uncomfortable silence. The girl was looking down at her shoes, “She’s been worried lately, she believes somebody is following her. She texted me in the store to come pick her up because she was scared.”

 

Taeyong nodded his head sympathetically as the story continued, falling into the man’s carefully weaved lies. “It’s okay, I was actually heading towards my house but she seemed scared so I decided to look out for her until I got to my place.” If not, the man’s eyes shone brighter at the new information.

 

“Is that so?” Taeyong heard him mumble to himself, looking at the girl who had refused to say anything. “Well, I’ll be taking  _ special  _ care of her from now on.” The girl shivered and even Taeyong felt slightly unsettled by the word choice and the tone of his voice, “It’s pretty late, you should get home pretty fast.”

 

Taeyong nodded and bowed respectfully to the male and waved to the girl. She looked for a split moment and he swore he saw tears in her eyes but he dismissed as a trick of the night and walked by them. He heard the man laughing behind him until he was too far to hear anything.

 

When he had arrived back, his parents paid him no mind, too busy caring about some achievement his sister must have done in his forty-five minutes of being out. He learned to neglect the feeling of jealousy brewing inside of him. His sister was better than him.

 

The next morning, he sat with his parents and sister for breakfast while his dad just sipped his tea and read the newspaper. His sister was droning on about some practice she has after school and how she needed someone to pick her up.

 

“Woah,” his dad suddenly sounded, sitting up in his seat. It wasn’t rare that his dad would have found news he thought was interesting but the table still quieted immediately. “It says here that last night, high school girl, Noh Hyeri, went missing. They said the last time she was seen was with a man older than here outside by the park.”

 

Taeyong sensed something familiar tugging at the back of his mind but he brushed it off, watching his parents fuss over his sister and how she needs to protect herself from this type of stuff. He bristled at the affection, his sister had done all types of martial, she doesn’t need anymore protection. 

 

His chair abruptly was pushed back and he stood, losing all apetite. His parents, of course, just glanced at him and returned to their banters. He grabbed his school bag, whispering a quick goodbye that his family either didn’t hear or pretending not to.

 

His journey to school was like any other, he was alone and the roads were as empty at this time as they had always been. There was nothing to dictate that this was not going to be a normal day. It was almost sad that the world doesn’t stop despite all of the deaths that would be happening as he walked to school.

 

He didn’t have any friends so he sat by himself in homeroom, reading a manga he had picked up from the store when he was bored one day. It was a typical love story but Taeyong still read it, wanting to relax his mind from everything. The only thing that sucked him out of his drama fest was the sound of sniffling near him,

 

He looked up and saw a bunch of people crowding a desk in the back, placing flowers on the table with small cards. He turned his head slightly to get a better view and that's where everything went bad. There was a picture on the desk of a girl smiling with Noh Hyeri on the bottom and Taeyong finally pieced everything.

 

The girl from last night was Noh Hyeri and Noh Hyeri was his classmate. Realizing this information, his stomach churned and he bolted out of the classroom into the nearest restroom. He felt disgusted and guilty at himself for not noticing anything wrong. How stupid was he for not noticing anything?

 

He bent over the toilet and released the contents of his stomach (which wasn’t much, he didn’t a lot for breakfast and had chips for dinner) and sobbed quietly. Oh god, what was he supposed to do? He could barely remember how the man looked since it was at night but he could still remember that sadistic smile lighting his features.

 

His mind flashed by to Hyeri, to the clues he should have noticed beforehand that she left, how scared she was when the male came. He should have noticed but he was selfish and didn’t care. And what had that cost him in the end? The supposed death of his classmate.

 

Suddenly, in front of him was Hyeri giving him a cheeky grin. Taeyong hit the back of the stall in panic and stared up at her, “Oh, poor Taeyong. Why didn’t you save me? It's all your fault you know that right? You could have saved me?”

 

Taeyong felt tears slide down his cheeks as he shook his head over and over again. The girl didn’t stop, “You were there. You saw me in the practice room but you didn’t save me. You didn’t save us.” Taeyong’s eyes widened as Hyeri morphed into Mark, looking at him regretfully,

 

“I thought you loved us. Why didn’t you save us?”

 

“Stop stop stop STOP,” Taeyong curled into himself sobbing. It was all his fault, If he just wasn’t so weak, he could have prevented anything from happening. He could have saved them but instead he chose to walk away. He walked away from Hyeri and he walked away from the Dream members when they needed him the most.

 

He couldn’t do anything right in his life.

 

There was someone shaking his shoulders roughly and he was back in his dorm room. He barely managed to open his eyes and someone gave a sigh of relief. “Oh my god, Taeyong, you’re awake.” he heard someone say and fully opened eyes, only to stare into the tired but worried eyes of Mark.

 

“Are you okay? You were crying in your sleep,” Mark sat down on the bed beside him and, now totally awake, Taeyong felt sick staring at the leader of NCT DREAM. Mark noticed his silence and frowned, feeling his head, “You’re kind of hot but i don’t think its a fever.” he mumbled.

 

Taeyong sat up and shook away Mark’s hand, the feeling of guilt so prominent. He deflected Mark’s question by his own. “Why are you here? I thought you were with the youngers?” Taeyong asked, remembering that Mark hadn’t slept here for almost two weeks.

 

Mark narrowed his eyes at the elder but nonetheless, he answered it, “I was coming by to pick something up,” he gestured to the bag in his hands, “But then i heard crying coming from this room and here we are,” he leaned in, “So, was it a bad dream?”

 

Taeyong leaned away, ignoring the flash of hurt that arises in the other's eyes. He looked to the side, staring at the clock that read 1:37AM. “It was a stupid dream,” he stated, closing his eyes, “I’m fine, it wasn't real.” Taeyong didn't know if he was trying to convince Mark or Himself that everything was okay.

 

“You know you can tell me if anythings wrong right?” Mark placed a hand on Taeyong’s shoulder and the elder tried so hard not flinch at the cold body part. “Being leader gets stressful, believe me I know,” he continued, bitterly, his eyes so close to Taeyong but looking so far away, detached.

 

“Then Mark, you can trust me with anything right?” Taeyong turned to look straight at the mail, the nausea doubling inside him when he recalled what had happened that morning. “If anythings happening, you can always tell me, okay?” he watched Mark look down and play with his fingers before giving a soft smile that seemed more real than any of the others he had given this whole month combined.

 

“Okay,” he whispered, this time leaning against Taeyong, “Okay,” he repeated again.

 

Taeyong stared down at the tired leader and felt himself panic slightly. What if he were to ignore everything and then Mark would become the next Hyeri? He didn't want that to happen. Why had he walked away in the first place? Was he just using the excuse that he was a coward? 

 

He shot up from the bed causing Mark to jolt. “Mark, sleep here,” he commanded, the younger looking at him in confusion. Taeyong needed to make this right. He grabbed the duffle bag that Mark had held up moments ago, “Mark, sleep here for tonight. I'm going to the other dorm, okay?”

 

Mark shook his head, “I need to go over there, they need me,” he retaliated and for a moment, Mark reminded him of Hyeri again, just giving up and succumbing to defeat. It made Taeyong want to punch something because he shouldn’t have let it go this far, he should've done something,anything.

 

“Need you for what, Lee Min Hyung?” the use of his real name caused the boy on the bed to flinch slightly and look down. He didn’t answer and Taeyong knew he should have just left and found out the truth but instead he continued, his mind filled to the brim with anger, “Are you going to go back there to take the blame for your members? Are you going to go back there so your fucking piece of shit manager can do whatever the fuck he wants to you? ARE YOU WILLINGLY GOING TO GO BACK TO THAT?”

 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Mark yelled, hands clenched, “Do you think you fucking understand anything? And if you thought you did, why were you so selfish to keep it to yourself? Huh, stop fucking blaming me if you’re no better.” Mark panted, staring directly into Taeyong’s eyes.

 

It should have stung, Taeyong knew, but it was no different than what he told himself everyday. He stared back at Mark for a moment, watching the tears that have collected in his eyes to drop freely from his face. Taeyong needed to make everything right and he will. 

 

Grasping Mark tightly, Taeyong brought him into a hug. Mark was tense before he clutched Taeyong’s shirt and started sobbing into his chest, mumbling incoherent words. As much as Taeyong wanted to comfort Mark he had an important job to do. “I’m sorry,” Taeyong whispered into Mark’s ear.

 

Mark pulled back, “What do you me-” he was cut off by Taeyong quickly throwing him on the bed. Mark looked caught off guard and Taeyong quickly ran out his room, slamming the door behind him. Not wasting any time, he bolted out of the dorm and into the cold outside. 

 

Running to the dream dorm, he saw the similarities between this night and the night a few years ago. The familiar weather and darkness caused him to irrationally panic even more. He knew that by now Mark would be chasing after him but he didn’t want Mark to worry himself out.

 

Making it to the dorm, the fastest he had ever done in his life, he opened the door silently, he became aware of the fact that he left the duffle bag of mysterious contents back in the dorm. Now that he was actually in the dorm, didn’t know why he was panicking so much.

 

It wasn’t as if the manager was currently killing them or something. But now that he was already here, it was too late to do anything. He quickly locked the door behind him and ventured into the house. He knew that one of the managers slept with him and he prayed that it wasn’t the evil one.

 

But maybe all of the managers were like this? He didn’t dare want to think about how torn he would be if that were to be true and he didn’t have to think about it longer because a scream sounded through the walls. Taeyong jumped, wasting no time to follow the sound of crying and pleading.

 

He had run away his whole life, and like hell he would run away this time. Hyeri wouldn’t forgive him for this, if anybody found out what he had done they wouldn’t forgive him but he wanted to forgive himself so the least he could do was to help his NCT family.

 

He flung open the door and everybody inside the room froze. Jisung was on the ground, crystal tears making its way down his swollen and bruised cheeks. His whole form was trembling and he looked horrified that Taeyong had come in.

 

The other members were crouching on the ground, covering their ears with their hands, rocking back and forth. At first, the manager paid no mind to him, probably thinking he was Mark but once everybody quieted, he looked back and saw him.

 

Taeyong had heard all of their screams before but that was different than seeing it. The guilt in him was totally replaced by repulsion at the scene that was burned into his retinas. “What do you think you’re doing?” he took a step forward, and the manager’s eyes widened, taking one back.

 

Without hesitation, Taeyong kneeled down in front of Jisung, “Go over there,” he pointed to where the other members were, “It’s okay, Jisung, he’s not gonna hurt you anymore. He’s not going to hurt anyone anymore.”

 

Jisung scampered over to the other boys, wiping his tears. Taeyong glared at the manager, anger boiling in his bloodstream. “You are fucking trash,” he seethed out, raising his fist “You are no better than any other fucking murderer or rapist out there.”

 

At this point, the manager seemed to get pissed at the insults and didn’t look as scared as he was before. That didn’t bother Taeyong at all, who by now was purely ranting everything just to get it off of his chest, to get all the pain and guilt and nights alone crying in his room all out. “You’re no better than the man who took Hyeri.”

 

Looking back at it now, Taeyong supposed, this where everything went wrong and right. The manager’s eyes widened slightly and slowly a grin spread on his face, “Noh Hyeri?” he clicked his tongue and Taeyong was the one who took a step back this time, “I thought I got rid of that bitch a long time.”

 

That was when everything came crashing down.

 

“N-no,” Taeyong stuttered out, momentarily frozen from the new information. He would have never guessed that this was the same man who took Hyeri. “No, this can’t be true. You’re just fucking with me aren’t you?” he didn’t notice that the Dream members started to inch more towards him.

 

“I know you!” The man’s eyes lit up and Taeyong saw that they had the same evil in them as years prior, “You were the boy i met that night,” he smirked, “The world sure is a small place, isn’t it?”

 

Taeyong shook his head, “You sick fuck.” he whispered, taking a quick look at the mess the room was. Books were scattered and the sheet were strewn across the floor. His vision turned red as he saw everything.

 

He could admit he wasn’t thinking much when he ran at the manager. The manager probably saw it coming (or he was just that fucking strong) and twisted Taeyong’s arm back painfully. The younger gasped and the manager threw him to the side.

 

It was pathetic, Taeyong thought, watching the man who ruined his life walk slowly towards him. He couldn’t do anything right in his life, he would truly never be as strong as his sister was. The room became loud, many voices protesting the sudden hands clenched around his neck.

 

Dying wasn’t a feeling Taeyong thought he would have to go through so soon. The whole day he wasn’t himself, he knew it, but his numbness and hasty decisions had helped him try to save the members and at least he didn't run away for once in his existence.

 

But through everything he had accomplished, just trying wouldn't do anything. He didn't want to die, and he didn't want his SM family to get hurt. That's why he tried a small trick he learned from his sister.

 

Since he was against the bed, he wrapped both of his legs against the man’s . Caught slightly of guard, the man loosened his hands around his neck and Tayong took that moment to lean his head forward, bringing all of his weight on the male.

 

He was successful and the man toppled back. The repercussions is that it was extremely painful for your hip if you don't do it right and by the pain in his he could guess he didn't do it exactly right.

 

Tayong saw stars as he forced the man to the ground. Raising his arm, he slammed a punch into the guys mouth. “This is for Hyeri,” he said, punching him again, “And this is for hurting the people I love.”

 

Tayong rode through his anger, letting everything out psychically on the male. It was only until an arm circled around his waist did he stop. “Please stop, Taeyong, you're scaring me.”

 

“I'm sorry,” he whispered back to Chenle, calming down and basking in the males warmth. His eyesight seemed kind of funny, since there were black spots everywhere. He was also kind of tired, so he leaned against Chenle, ignoring the unconscious manager under him.

 

“Taeyong? What are you doing?” Jeno asked, but Taeyong ignored him, closing his eyes. “Hey, Taeyong. This isn't the time for sleeping. Wake up,” the elder went completely limp in his grasp and Haechan whimpered.

 

“Oh my god, Taeyong. Fuck, Taeyong wake up.” they roughly shook his shoulders but nothing worked. Taeyong was too tired to open his eyes and tell them he was fine, so for the moment, he just rested in eternal darkness.

 

\---

 

The end of the story, Taeyong would say to himself one night, sitting with all of NCT in his hospital room, was right here. There would be time before everyone got better judging by the way Jaemin and Renjun were on either side of Jisung, staying a bit away from the older members of NCT.

 

But through time, although it would be hard, he was sure they would be one big family again. Taeyong thought this, of course, without putting to action that he would be the glue to connect them, and that maybe, they are already being pieced together.

 

He didn't think they were damaged, no, he just thought that they were artworks that have stains on them. Stain that, over time, can forge into something new, something better, than it was before.

 

But that was just his thoughts.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hahaha was it good? I felt like it was lacking. Please comment if you like it or not because I was debating whether or not post this since I thought it sucked.
> 
> Have a great day, everyone!!!


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